Ancient artifacts - Fascinating finds that inform...

[Maxmars]

I've seen numerous videos, television series, podcast episodes and others that begin with "Ancient [fill in the blank]" and most are usually quite interesting and informative.

But I may have missed one entry in that field... "Ancient Artifacts" which may or may not have existed... but should have...

From Ancient Origins.net: Ten Amazing Artifacts Reveal the Secrets of the Ancient World
 

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... Here we feature ten such artifacts. We have intentionally chosen not to feature well-known artifacts such as the Antikythera Mechanism, Baghdad Battery, Viking Sunstone, and many other famous relics. Rather, we wished to highlight some lesser known but equally incredible artifacts from the ancient world.

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The list is fascinating, and in some ways surprising.  They share these artifacts for your consideration:
 

 Thor’s Hammer (900 AD, Denmark)

It's not actually a hammer... but a Mjölnir amulet, which some scholars presume was worn in defiance of the new Roman religion which came to the Germanic region, Christianity.
 

The Quipu of Caral (3,000 BC, Peru)

These woven/knotted cords were organized into form which allowed the specially trained wearers to encode information about a wide range of information, regarding trade, agriculture, census, and an unknown number of additional data.  The users of these objects were like a database of valuable information necessary to more adequately manage local affairs.  Some have added historical data and ritual to the list of subjects these Qipus were used for.  But the art of deciphering them is lost, perhaps due to the personal nature of the devices themselves...
 

Terracotta Baby Bottle, Toy, and Rattle, All in One (400 BC, Italy)

A 2,400 year old guttus, in this case a child's drinking bottle, whimsically shaped like a piggy - with a rattler built-in to its tummy. A product of the Messapian people who migrated to Italy from the Balkans before being subsequently conquered and assimilated by the Romans.
 

The Nebra Sky Disk (1,600 BC, Germany)

This 3,600 year-old bronze disc was initially thought to be an archeological forgery, but it's not.  It was found in Germany, and depicts the stars (the Pleiades among them), the moon (crescent and full,) and more in what is considered one of the first examples of a portable astronomical observation device since it correctly marks the solstices.
 

Gold-Encrusted Dagger of Stonehenge’s Bush Barrow (2,000 BC, England)

 

Found just a half mile from the famous Stonehenge, in the 4,000 year-old Bush Barrow, this amazingly intricate object of was crafted with mind-boggling care, featuring over a hundred thousand delicate gold studs, taking thousands of man-hours to produce.

The Trundholm Sun Chariot (c. 1700-500 BC, Denmark)

This find has not yet been definitively dated, and scholars are suggesting it may have had a calendar functionality, with the front of the bronze disk representing a sun calendar and the rear a lunar calendar.
 

The James Ossuary (1st century AD, Israel)

This ossuary (bone box) had an Aramaic inscription reading "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus" which in and of itself would make the artifact of immense importance to a huge portion of the world.  Interestingly, the local antiquities authorities tried unsuccessfully to have the artifact declared a forgery, and afterwards also tried and failed to 'be designated its "owner."  Sadly, the contention over this artifact continues.
 

The Divje Babe Flute (58,000 – 43,000 BC, Slovenia)

Perhaps the oldest musical instrument ever found, it is a cave bear femur with spaced holes drilled into it.  The idea of Neanderthals playing musical instruments so troubled some archeologists that they insisted for a time that the holes were the evidence of animals chewing the bones.  Fortunately the trope of the infantile brutish and unsophisticated Neanderthal is diminishing perhaps due to evidence like this.

 

The Ubaid Lizard (5,000 BC, Iraq)

This artifact comes from the Ubaidian people, a prehistoric culture whose origins, like the Sumerians, is still unknown.  The artifact above figures a reptilian-headed humanoid, nursing a child of similar appearance.  Apparently a sizeable number of this style of artifact have been recovered, in various poses.

 

The Venus Figurines (30,000 – 10,000 BC, Europe)

 

Many different objects recovered fit this category of depiction.  These paleolithic statuettes have been discovered from Europe to Siberia.  The debate continues in the field of study regarding their actual purpose, from aesthetics to pornography to ritual and superstition.

I hope you enjoy the article as much as I did.  A lot of fuel for speculation and discussion... especially here at DI, where people actually think.

[Byrd]

They missed one of my favorites-- the Lowenmensch (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion-man)

[Maxmars]

They missed one of my favorites-- the Lowenmensch (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion-man)

Nice one! 

I bet there are hundreds more!  

Isn't funny how the further back you go, the more likely it will be sexual/ritualistically attributed?  I mean, what about it being their version of a G.I. Joe or Barbie?

[Byrd]

Nice one! 

I bet there are hundreds more!  

Isn't funny how the further back you go, the more likely it will be sexual/ritualistically attributed?  I mean, what about it being their version of a G.I. Joe or Barbie?

Toys generally got used up - passed along to other kids, broken, lost, etc.  What mostly survives tends to be trash (tossed and covered up) or burial goods (put in a grave with someone... and covered up with dirt.)

There are some old toys, though.

Here's a University of Michigan page on an exhibit of old toyos: https://exhibitions.kelsey.lsa.umich.edu...d/toys.php

[Maxmars]

Toys generally got used up - passed along to other kids, broken, lost, etc.  What mostly survives tends to be trash (tossed and covered up) or burial goods (put in a grave with someone... and covered up with dirt.)

There are some old toys, though.

Here's a University of Michigan page on an exhibit of old toyos: https://exhibitions.kelsey.lsa.umich.edu...d/toys.php

I wonder at the idea of children playing with toys in antiquity.  How did they pretend?  What did they echo in their play?  How far did their imaginations "go?"

I find it weird that my first imaginations are of how to restore these artifacts from the state they were found in.  It must be a fascinating skill set. 

It had never occurred to me that toys get used up and discarded... I guess I never thought about it... but now that I do, I realize any of my old toys are currently reduced to rust dust, plastic chunks, and strips of string and cloth... anthropologists of the future might never know... except for the random GI Joe foot, arm, or other rigid plastic debris.

[HUBE007]

I wonder at the idea of children playing with toys in antiquity.  How did they pretend?  What did they echo in their play?  How far did their imaginations "go?"

I find it weird that my first imaginations are of how to restore these artifacts from the state they were found in.  It must be a fascinating skill set. 

It had never occurred to me that toys get used up and discarded... I guess I never thought about it... but now that I do, I realize any of my old toys are currently reduced to rust dust, plastic chunks, and strips of string and cloth... anthropologists of the future might never know... except for the random GI Joe foot, arm, or other rigid plastic debris.

I think about this all the time while watching my youngest boy that is 7 play with his toys. Much of his "play" stems from movies we have seen and action heroes he enjoys.

With ancients having a very limited scope of the world (assuming they did not travel much in those times from the place they were born till death) how far could ones mind really travel without the help of meditation or first hand experiences they could not have of the wider world.

Then my thoughts go to just that, did the ancients practice meditation at an early age only to master its use by the time they were "of age" thus why they were able to create such absolute marvels in todays eyes? I bet if we as a society meditated regularly and made it more mainstream our entire landscape and overall mindset of the world we created would be unrecognizable to us all.  Great post...

[Maxmars]

I think about this all the time while watching my youngest boy that is 7 play with his toys. Much of his "play" stems from movies we have seen and action heroes he enjoys.

With ancients having a very limited scope of the world (assuming they did not travel much in those times from the place they were born till death) how far could ones mind really travel without the help of meditation or first hand experiences they could not have of the wider world.

Then my thoughts go to just that, did the ancients practice meditation at an early age only to master its use by the time they were "of age" thus why they were able to create such absolute marvels in todays eyes? I bet if we as a society meditated regularly and made it more mainstream our entire landscape and overall mindset of the world we created would be unrecognizable to us all.  Great post...

With apologies, I took the liberty of re-formatting your post to make it easier to follow.  I hope you don't mind.

I'm uncertain about a society driven to habitual meditation.  Not that I think it bad at all, just that I can't imagine how that would be achieved without a major change in social values.  It may have served to render conflict less extreme, had it been socially practiced.  Usually meditation appears to promote a peaceful outlook with less propensity to feel 'threatened' by every little thing in life.  But this is just my musings, not some call for change, or some pretension of wisdom.

I think we must eventually recognize that our children are quite literally, our teachers... Innocence engenders a clarity of perception... although unburdened with depth of understanding.  Balance... life is largely about balance.

These artifacts join us with the past.  It is natural that in them, we might find a kinship with our history... 'Toys' are the often the tools of a child's mind...  maybe we can still learn from them... as they once did.

[putnam6]

https://imgur.com/gallery/5-500-year-old...ap-xhlbBfi

 5,500-Year-Old Sumerian Star Map

For over 150 years scientists have tried to solve the mystery of a controversial cuneiform clay tablet that indicates the so-called Köfel’s impact event was observed in ancient times. The circular stone-cast tablet was recovered from the 650 BC underground library of King Ashurbanipal in Nineveh, Iraq in the late 19th century. Long thought to be an Assyrian tablet, computer analysis has matched it with the sky above Mesopotamia in 3300 BC and proves it to be of much more ancient Sumerian origin. The tablet is an “Astrolabe,” the earliest known astronomical instrument. It consists of a segmented, disk-shaped star chart with marked units of angle measure inscribed upon the rim.